As electronic and computer technology continues to evolve, communication of information among different devices, either situated near by or at a distance becomes increasingly important. It is now more desirable than ever to provide high speed communications among different chips on a circuit board, different circuit boards in a system and different systems with each other. It is also desirable to provide high speed communications in intensive data consuming systems using graphical or video information, multiple input-output channels, local area networks, etc.
Data may be transmitted between different devices in a communication system through a “data link”. Typically, data is transmitted in parallel whenever possible in order to increase bandwidth. However, due to cost, weight, interference (noise) and electrical loading considerations, parallel transmission is not feasible in many systems. In order to simplify the communications problem, data may be transmitted serially. By transmitting data serially, less hardware is required for the actual communications link between the different devices.
The transmitted serial data signal in the data link may have timing uncertainties as the result of interference, attenuation, skin effect, etc. These timing uncertainties are commonly referred to as “jitter.” “Jitter” may refer to an offset of time as to when the serial data signal transitions from a high to a low state or from a low to a high state.
It would therefore be desirable to diminish jitter thereby improving the accuracy of the received serial data signal.